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2010-01-30 - Allehanda Interview
Pontus Hjelm was interviewed on January 30, 2010 for the Swedish newspaper Allehanda. Pontus discussed upcoming plans for DBA and his stage fright. The interview was done prior to Dead by April's show at Club Ayer in Sollefteå. Script ::: The interview was done in Swedish and is therefore translated into English. : Dead by April plays tonight. They canceled their concert in mid-December, but tonight Dead by April is playing in Sollefteå. - "It will be a blast. We love being on stage and we are gonna rock really hard in Sollefteå", says Pontus Hjelm. : One of last year's exclamation marks in the Swedish metal market was Gothenburg band Dead By April. In just two years, since the band's beggining, they have become one of Sweden's largest and best-selling rock bands. Pontus Hjelm: It's gone really fast. It all started with me and Jimmie writing songs for fun and putting them out on MySpace. The songs quickly became popular and we had to throw together a band. Then we got a lots of gigs and it all just rolled. : Record companies quickly got the eye for Dead By April and the band signed a record deal. In May last year they released their self-titled debut album, which has been certified gold in Sweden. Pontus Hjelm: Since the record and the tour has gone so well we will continue touring and probably also release a new single. Then we'll launch the album in England, Japan and probably the U.S. : Pontus Hjelm, who writes most of Dead By Aprils material already has plans for a new disc. Pontus Hjelm: I write new songs all the time, both for other artists and DBA. But a new Dead by April albums will have to wait a good while longer. : The songs "Losing You" and "Angels of Clarity" are already big hits The latter even got Slipknot interested. Infamous Shawn "Clown" Crahan liked "Angels of Clarity" so much that he did a remix of it. Pontus Hjelm: It's so big that it almost impossible to grasp. We've been listening to Slipknot since their first album. Slipknot and we played at the same festival twice this summer. Clown liked the song and wanted to meet us backstage, but due to time constraints it didn't happen. But their company contacted us and asked if he could do the remix and we naturally answered yes. : Tonight Dead by April is playing Club Ayer. Pontus Hjelm: We were in the neighborhood of Sollefteå when we played with Mustasch last year, but never played in Sollefteå, so it'll be fun. Q: For those who have not seen you live before, how is you who live band? Pontus Hjem: We love being on stage and gets a reall kick out of it. Personally, I have had problems with anxiety before concerts, but it drops as soon as I go up on stage. We're gonna rock really hard in Sollefteå. There's no doubt about it!